NFL Week 5 round-robin moneyline parlay: Swinging for the fences

Bang! Zonk! Whammo! Doink!

No, that's not a reenactment of a live-action "Batman" episode from the 1960s; it was the field-goal uprights in Foxborough that left us exclaiming, "What the Folk, Nick!"

An infamous clank did in the round-robin moneyline parlay last week, not unlike our other losing ticket in Week 2. Though Nick Folk's effort was a more difficult kick than Greg Joseph's miss in Arizona, it didn't hurt any less, especially when the Las Vegas Raiders showed up fashionably late to their gathering in Los Angeles on Monday night.

Undaunted, we'll grab a shiny coin from our gold doubloon silo and take a shot with more underdogs to put together another edition of football betting's lottery ticket.

How it works

We parlay five underdogs together in 10 different three-team parlays. Using every combination of a three-team parlay is called a round robin, so we're going to use 1.1 units to make 11 different bets: 10 three-team parlays and one five-team parlay. If three teams pull off the upset, you'll likely double your money. If four teams win, as they did in Week 3, you're connecting on four separate parlays and will be very pleased with the return. If all five teams win like they did in Week 1, then it's back into the pool, swimming in gold doubloons like heirs to the McDuck fortune.

Who to play

Miami Dolphins +375

This is our first big swing of the season with a double-digit underdog - a perfect candidate to take a shot on with just 0.7 units on the line.

Are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers simply invincible? Of course not. We saw that Sunday night, as Antoine Winfield and Carlton Davis added to the Bucs' cluster of injuries on the back end. If Mac Jones can move the ball through the air in the rain, Jacoby Brissett can do the same against a second-string secondary.

Defensively, the Dolphins are more vulnerable on the ground than through the air. That's not what the Bucs do, though. Leonard Fournette won't have the same impact Jonathan Taylor had last Sunday. Meanwhile, without Rob Gronkowski, we could see something similar to last week's one touchdown result for Tampa.

This is the mother of all letdown spots for the Bucs - they poured a lot into the win for Tom Brady in New England. In what could be a low-scoring game, this juicy of a moneyline is too big to pass up as part of our quintet of chaos.

New York Jets +150

I, too, find it hard to believe the Jets will win a second straight game, but how many oceans away does this game need to be played for it to make sense that the Atlanta Falcons are favorites over anyone? The +150 price tag on what can't be much worse than a coin flip is worth inclusion here.

Philadelphia Eagles +165

Remember trigonometry class? This triangle is a little easier to understand. The Eagles were four-point underdogs in Dallas against the Cowboys two weeks ago. Six days later, the Carolina Panthers were four-point underdogs in Dallas. Both teams got equally manhandled. Now there's a 3.5-point difference between Philadelphia and Carolina. Even if you throw Carolina a point for home-field advantage, we're not getting close to -3.5. Therefore, there's value on the underdog and a worthwhile shot on the moneyline.

San Francisco 49ers +200

We got deep into this matchup Wednesday in the upset of the week, so naturally, we'll include the 49ers here. The king of NFL subterfuge, Kyle Shanahan, said Jimmy Garoppolo might be able to play this week. If you believe that, I've got some magic beans you might be interested in. This will be the run-oriented offense with play-action passes for Trey Lance that the 49ers coach craves, and San Francisco's relative success against Kyler Murray should make this a late-game toss-up. A good deal at 2-1 odds.

Chicago Bears +200

Bill Lazor is calling the plays for Justin Fields, which worked for the Bears' offense - at least for one game. Another week of first-team reps and a Raiders defense that took a step back Monday night could result in a more dangerous-looking offense for Chicago. The Raiders allow the fourth-most yards per carry, and Damien Williams is just as capable of shredding them as the injured David Montgomery would have been.

The Raiders' offense is predicated on Derek Carr taking advantage of teams that dare him with blitzes. The Bears have blitzed the fifth-least this season. The Los Angeles Chargers got to Carr rushing just four times, and the Bears can do the same, especially after they render Las Vegas one-dimensional thanks to a strong run defense.

Here's how the odds shake down this week:

PARLAY	ODDS (Approx.)
NYJ+MIA+PHI	+3000
NYJ+MIA+CHI	+3400
NYJ+MIA+SF	+3400
NYJ+PHI+CHI	+1800
NYJ+PHI+SF	+1800
NYJ+CHI+SF	+2100
MIA+PHI+CHI	+3600
MIA+PHI+SF	+3600
MIA+CHI+SF	+4100
PHI+CHI+SF	+2200
NYJ+MIA+PHI+CHI+SF	+27000

Who are your five underdogs for a football betting lottery ticket?

Matt Russell is a betting writer for theScore. If there's a bad beat to be had, Matt will find it. Find him on Twitter @mrussauthentic.

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